Indian Attorneys and Entrepreneurs Work Together to Carve Out a Niche Serving the West
Profile #2 in a series on Legal Service entrepreneurs in India.
India’s growing legal services industry is, to a large extent, focused on serving the West, and not all of the companies are small and family-owned. Manthan Services, in Bangalore, is one of the largest legal-services companies in India. With 140 employees, including 80 attorneys, Manthan aims to be the premier Indian company providing legal services and research and analysis to the U.K. and U.S. markets. The company is not managed by attorneys but, rather, by business entrepreneurs.
Manthan, attracts young lawyers with the promises of meritocratic advancement, valuable on-the-job training, a work environment of mutual respect, and better pay. Young lawyers respond to this because the legal profession is not regarded as highly in India as it is in the U.S., for several reasons. Indian society is not litigious. Lawyers are viewed as a last resort. Lawyers must practice for years to earn the respect instantly awarded to, say, a recently graduated medical doctor.
The legal industry also lacks the professional organization it enjoys in the U.S. Most firms are actually composed of single advocates who take on an associate or two, which means employment for recent law grads is limited. Although half of all law-school graduates are women, most women graduates decline to practice law in India. They follow other career paths, start families, etc. These young professionals face a daunting employment environment; the Wall Street Journal reported (September, 2005) that India’s 500 law schools graduate approximately 200,000 attorneys a year.
The supply of educated professionals exceeds demand, and their hopes exceed the opportunities. Into this vacuum arrives the promises of legal-services vendors like Manthan. The company maintains an active database of, at present, 5,000 legal professionals. The candidates are screened, interviewed, and kept on file for quick reference so they can be hired when a project starts. Manthan conducts interviews on law campuses, posts on job boards, and receives many referrals from existing employees. Increasingly, law grads are more savvy about the opportunities of legal-services vendors, and many have already heard of Manthan in particular.
These resources are being utilized by U.S. corporations and law firms alike to drastically reduce the cost of document review, particularly for large-scale litigation. Given their teams of ambitious attorneys, fast turn-around time is another selling point.
For more facts on the India’s legal educational system:
http://www.offshore-legal-services.com/knowledge3.htm